Aroden

[beccaelizabeth]

So the current Pathfinder setting is the Age of Lost Omens, which is pretty much defined by
prophecy said the god Aroden was coming back, but oops, he dead.

And now prophecy doesnt work and everything he fixed is unravelling and its a very Adventure time
which makes it a great setting.

But I am reading stuff about Aroden's remaining worshippers and it's asking
why would anyone keep believing in a god that doesnt give them spells?
but the answer is, they dont, the church just owns a ton of property and has seats on the council etc.

Which is weird because it's asking
why would anyone believe in Actual God From The Real World?
... guess it must be money?

... which is an odd read.

Don't get me wrong, it's a story generator, it'll make very plenty story, I get it.
I can just also think of a good handful of reasons even ignoring team
He's Not Dead He's Testing Us
which would not be a small team
but apparently they all headed off to fight demons on the Worldwound without their magic
so the world could plausibly be without them by now.

But Aroden is a god of history and tradition and learning from the past and finding your own greatness and being your best self
and like, none of that needs a god? or divine magic?
they can prove god doesnt exist and go back to reading from their History and Future of Humanity
and it wouldnt change tradition much.

Plus he was a wizard in his mortal life, or a magis seeing as he used a sword, so trying to live life in his image wouldnt center divine magic anyways.

Also, additionally, too
death is a very reversible state in this game.
I mean, not so much for NPCs, they're out of luck
but for rich people and connected people and lucky people and people with a high enough level to just cast it themselves?
death is like being put on hold for a while.

And it hasnt even been a whole human lifetime, if said human applied enough magic to only die of extreme old age when the dice ran out.

So all it takes to still be a Believer is reckoning that god is not more mortal than you are.

Which seems reasonable.




I can see how a lack of healing magic would not be good for the lifespan, so going elsewhere for healthcare seems fair, but these books never really get their head around polytheism, they seem to see it as competition. If it's not a competition and you go to every god for their own best good thing, then there's still a place for Aroden.

That place is the history books, but so what?




So. My thoughts on imaginary religions that exist to spark adventures.



... I actually do like thinking through these made up deities because it gets a lot more fiddly and specific than trying to decide What Is Good or some such. There's a lot of different good gods so there's a lot of different ways of doing good. Law is also multiple, which probably annoys Law rather. As places to start thinking, lists of made up gods with plenty of space to make up more are fun.



... does not involve much writing, but, the thinking is fun.

Comments

[lokifan]

There's definitely a thing where like... certain fantasy books have WEIRD ideas of what motivates religious belief. I mean, it's a really complicated question, but like you say - we have a fuckton of real-world examples of people believing in a god that doesn't give em magic!